Disgraced ex-Detroit mayor asks Trump for clemency

Trump considering pardoning up to 3,000 people

By AARON PELLISH, CNN

Posted: 10:23 AM, June 13, 2018Updated: 10:23 AM, June 13, 2018

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on Sept. 4, 2008.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A former Detroit mayor who was convicted in a federal corruption case is asking President Donald Trump -- who recently announced he is considering pardoning thousands of people -- to cut short his 28-year sentence.

Kwame Kilpatrick, who went to jail in 2013 after he was convicted on charges of racketeering conspiracy, extortion and filing false tax returns, apologized to his family and to the city of Detroit in a Facebook post, saying he is "ready mentally, emotionally and spiritually to go home."

Related Content

"Our chances has always been the land of 2nd Chances! I am hoping, confidently expecting, that I will have the opportunity to boldly move into the next season of my life; outside of these prison walls," Kilpatrick wrote.

The disgraced former mayor's appeal comes as Trump has pardoned conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza and commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman serving a life sentence for drug charges. Trump has floated the possibility of granting clemency to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and TV personality Martha Stewart, and he told reporters last week that he is considering pardoning up to 3,000 people because "many of those names really have been treated unfairly."

CNN reported earlier this month that the White House has assembled the paperwork to pardon dozens of people, according to two sources with knowledge of the developments.

Copyright 2018 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.